I was diagnosed with UC earlier this month but suffered for weeks before I went to the GI. I lost weight and had no energy. I don't like prednisone because of its side effects but it is lesser of the evil.
I am tapering off the doses and hoping to stay off. I can't sleep and my joints hurt all the time.

i have to agree that the prednisone does help the symptoms, but i am not sure i felt better before or now. before i had lots of bleeding and diarrhea, now i have constipation and insomnia, vertigo, puffy face, etc.

i miss sleeping, i would rather have diarrhea than insomnia i think. anyway, i am tapering off and I am now down to 30mg, i started at 50mg. i'm usually fairly optomistic, but i am not one of those smile all the time, laugh a minute people, but lately since i started the prednisone, i feel like my head is in a fog, and i am just going through the motions. i feel stupid, like my brain isn't working properly, and i am really moody and short with my family. i can barely pay attention to anything, maybe from not getting any sleep.

i also have a cold right now, so i cant tell if i am hot and sweaty from fever or from the prednisone, but my family is freezing and i am wet with sweat most of the time, trying to open windows. they sufffer from the side effects of prednisone as much as i do.

**end of pity party. **

I have taken all the prednisone that the doctor would presribe over approximately an eighteen month period. My UC was so severe and none of the other traditional medicines helped at all, so I kept begging for more pred until the GI said you will surely die if you take anymore. I was having some really bad physical side effcts at the time so I believed her. I also had what I consider to be a psychotic episode while on 120mgs per day for 3wks. I witnessed a man approximately 6'2" tall and 240lbs smacking his approximately 5-6yr.old 37lb. daughter on top of the head with the butt of his hand. The poor defenseless little girl was screaming murder and with at least 20 other witnesses doing nothing I suddenly felt like I was 6'6" 330lbs of blind fury. I never hit the guy for the little girls sake but I had the man shaking so bad his knees buckled. I'm like 5'8" and 185.00. Anyway the cops showed up and tried to arrest me. I yelled at them so loud that they grabbed their guns and for some reason(the grace of God), they listened to me and didn't arrest me. It has been almost a year since I took prednisone and looking back at that incident makes me cringe. Even though I had some bad effects, I would take it again but never such a high dose.mm

pred helped at times but had trouble with long term use. My bleeding would intensify upon weaning. used long term due to intolerance of immunomodulators. in case of insomnia take early in day. it was the only way I could sleep.

this drug seriously drives me out of my skull can't think, can't sleep and messes with my emotions

Hi Terrifico,
As i was just diagnosed when I saw a emerge doctor he put me on the prednisone for 2 weeks. I was in mass amounts of pain the next day and saw my GI immediately, He told me that taking prednisone was the worst thing I could do for having UC especially during a flare up. Just see how you are after a day or two on it, but for me it caused me to literally be in so much pain that I couldn't walk.

Hey everyone I'm 21 and was just diagnosed with Chron's and I have been dealing with it for a year before i knew what it was. So i was immediately put on Prednisone for 6 weeks. So far it has been a miracle. Before this I had severe pain because my small intestine gets "looped up" and cause an obstruction. No bleeding and when I have no obstruction my BM are fine. I have never had the issue of going to the bathroom 20 times a day like most others with Chron's talk about so I'm not exactly sure where i stand on the spectrum. Only issues are severe pain, nausea and vomiting because the food has no where else to go. The problem was that it was so frequent that I could not leave the house but a few times a week. On prednisone my life feels like it has been given back to me. I am still early in the cycle so who knows maybe the side effects will hit me later. To be honest the fact this pain is gone and that I can eat far out ways anything else. That is my story so far.

I also thinks its important to note that I am also on Medical Marijuana. If others has access to this I would highly suggest giving it a try.

Prednisone worked well for me, and got me out of my initial flare. I was very irritable and emotional while taking it, and developed a nasty case of acne that I'm still trying to get rid of. I also had much more of an appetite and gained back the weight I had lost from flaring. Like most people here, I would rather not go back on it, but I trust it will help a flare.

It has saved my ass many times. I hate taking it tho. It makes me feel real good when I first start then like poop later. One thing I can tell you is make SURE you do the step down in dose correctly. iIf you don't it can throw things off and make you feel like poop. I have a 100 pills on stand by at all time should I need it